Saturday, November 19, 2016

Now, I Am A Fan Of Ustaad Rashid Khan!

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Ustaad Rashid Khan

We had been attending 'Naad Ninaad' concerts for the past few years now. The Hindu(news paper) is sponsoring them and it comes in November. This year too we went to Chennai's famous Music Academy to hear the music. And loved it. Thanks goes to The Hindu!

We, i.e. our family heard about Rashid Khan (The name is pronounced as Raashid and not Rashid!) in the very old (1998)Saregama, a musical Reality programme anchored by Sonu Nigam. Many stalwarts from Hindi Film music industry and our Hindustani Classical music stalwarts participated as judges. Many following episodes showed them singing in front of India Gate and other prominent places and we came to know about many famous Hindustani music singers then. One of them was Ustaad Rashid Khan. I still remember him singing in that programme. No, I hadn't heard about him before that. We, South Indians are involved with Carnatic music than Hindustani music then. Now, the atmosphere is changing. Every year we get to hear many Hindustani concerts in our famous Music season, in Chennai, in November and December! This concert was houseful till the end, i.e. 9.30 pm! Mostly people start leaving the hall by 9 pm! Both Ustaad Shahid Parvez Khan and Ustaad Rashid Khan made us sit glued to our seat till the end! The sitar played by Ustaad Shahid Parvez Khan was divine. I will write about him also sometime!

Please have a look at this video first. This is just a sample. He expanded this song elaborately, with a touch of pure classical in the end at the concert. This one is mild, ghazal type. Really, melodious:

Ustaad Rashid Khan (Wiki says), born on 1st July, 1996, belongs to the Rampur Sahaswan Gharana and is the great grandson of the founder Inaayat Hussain Khan. Every gharana has got unique type of singing Hindustani music. But Rashid Khan didn't just stick to his gharana, though he got trained in that, adopted many other gharana styles like Amir Khan's and Bhimsen Joshi's.
He is married to Joyeeta Bose, from the family of Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose. (The comment section in the 'yaad piya ki video gave some details).

This information is for serious Hindustani music fans:

His renderings stand out for the emotional overtones in his melodic
elaboration. He says: "The emotional content may be in the alaap,
sometimes while singing the bandish, or while giving expression to the
meaning of the lyrics."
This brings a touch of modernity to his style, as compared to the older
maestros, who tended to place greater emphasis on impressive technique
and skillful execution of difficult passages.

Rashid Khan has also experimented with fusing pure Hindustani music with lighter musical genres, e.g. in the Sufi fusion recording Naina Piya Se (songs of Amir Khusro), or in experimental concerts with western instrumentalist Louis Banks.

Rashid Khan gave his first concert at age eleven, and the following year, 1978, he performed at an ITC concert in Delhi. In April 1980, when Nissar Hussain Khan (his maternal grand uncle from who he was learning music) moved to the ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Calcutta, Rashid Khan also joined the academy at the age of 14. By 1994, he was acknowledged as a musician (a formal process) at the academy.

Wiki says: Pandit Bhimsen Joshi once remarked that Rashid Khan was the "assurance for the future of Indian vocal music".He was awarded the Padma Shri as well as the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2006.

You can know more about him in his interview programme in Rajya Sabha TV.

Shaksiyat Rajya Sabha programme:

This is his typical classical singing. He sang this at the concert. Click here: Awesome rendition!

He has got two daughters and a son, who also have started giving concerts. He has done playback singing in some movies like Jagjit Singh and his voice is melodious and soft in them. This is one:

From the movie 'Jab we met':

I used to hear just Jagjit Singh's ghazals all these days. Now, Rashid Khan will also become my favourite! Never knew about him this much. This concert has introduced me to an incredible, unique voice!

The video which is given below shows my favourite Carnatic singer Bombay Jayashree and now my favourite Hindustani singer, Ustaad Rashid Khan in a 'different' type of music, is it fusion...well, I liked it! You too will love this! Over to Coke studio:

I love his songs. I am more fond of Hindustani style of music than Carnatic. But then I really like ALL styles from around the world. This is a wonderful post. Enjoyed listening to the songs. Now will watch the interview.

SG: Nowadays, the barriers are leaving. One Hindi movie, 'Morning Raaga' in which Shabana Azmi, a famous Hindi actress acted, was full of Carnatic songs. Sudha Raghunathan also sang a song. Bombay Jayashree is my favourite singer too. I attend her concert every year. I went to a concert a couple of weeks back where a Carnatic singer and Hindustani singer sang. It is called Jugalbandhi. They take the same raaga and sing in both the styles. In Carnatic we use swarams like sa ri ga ma during swaraprasthaaram. In Hindustani they use Akkaaram...voice comes out from the naabhi. Both are good in their own way. Ajay Chakraborthy and his daughter are Hindustani singers. They learnt Carnatic music from our Balamuralikrishna and include them in their concerts. They, the Hindustani artists, use swarams too in some places when they sing here in Chennai. Chennai is world known for the music season now. People come here from all over the world during the December season. Hindustani music also is included nowadays, which is interesting. I and my family members attend both the Hindustani and Carnatic concerts, though I am not thorough with the raagas etc. Am gifted to enjoy all types of music.

Thanks for the first comment, SG! Waiting to hear more from you!

ONKAR: Yes, he is good, Onkar! Now, I have become very familiar with him.

SHAIL MOHAN: Thank you, Shail! In my family, all are Carnatic music lovers except my father. I wrote about it in one of my post too. He used to hear Hindustani music in the radio at night and ask us to listen. We were laughing at hearing the alaap. We were naive to understand it then. Any classical music, pure classical. Though I was familiar with Carnatic music, since I was accompanying my aunt to her music class, must be from the age of 3 or 4. And used to sing bhajans with my grand mother. It was a ritual in those days. At 6 in the evening, we have to wash our hands and legs, sit in front of the god and sing together! Only now, for the past few years, I have started appreciating Hindustani music. Till then only light, melodious music!